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DUBAI: Head coach Mike Hesson has told his Pakistan team to “focus on the job” in Sunday’s highly charged T20 Asia Cup clash with arch-rivals India.The match in Dubai is the first time that the neighbours will have met in cricket since a brief but deadly military conflict in May and emotions will be running high.
“I guess, from my perspective, just like any time you enter a match, whether it be a final of a world event or whatever, it’s about keeping everybody focused on the job at hand and that’ll be no different on the weekend,” New Zelander Hesson said during a media conference on Thursday.
The eight-nation T20 tournament began on Tuesday with Afghanistan beating Hong Kong by 94 runs. India crushed hosts the UAE by nine wickets on Wednesday.
Pakistan begin their campaign against Oman in Dubai on Friday, but all the talk is already of T20 world champions India two days later.
“We know that India are obviously hugely confident and rightfully so in terms of how well they’ve played but we’re very much focused on improving as a team day by day and not getting too far ahead of ourselves. We’re well aware of the enormity of the task ahead, the challenge it presents, and we’re certainly looking forward to it,” Hesson said of India, the Asia Cup defending champions.
India skittled the UAE for just 57 in 13.1 overs and cruised to victory in just 4.3 overs.
Since winning the World Cup last year they have won 18 of their 21 T20Is.
Hesson is excited to be part of a blockbuster, which will be watched by a packed stadium in Dubai and hundreds of millions of television viewers.
“Look, I’ve certainly watched many games from afar, so certainly being on the other side of the fence, I guess, being right and amongst such a highly charged event is going to be exciting,” he added.
Pakistan enter the Asia Cup with a tri-series win in the UAE also involving Afghanistan and UAE, and confidence is growing.
“We’re very much focused on improving as a team, sort of day by day, and not getting too far ahead of ourselves,” said Hesson.
India, Pakistan, Oman and UAE are in Group ‘A’ while Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Hong Kong and Bangladesh form Group ‘B’.
The top two teams from each Group will qualify for the Super Four stage. The top two teams will then play the Sept 28 final in Dubai.
“I don’t think you can expect this [Dubai] pitch to spin like it did in Sharjah. Even yesterday when [Indian wrist spinner] Kuldeep Yadav bowled [in Dubai], it didn’t spin a huge amount. Whenever you’ve got wrist spinners like that, it doesn’t really matter about the surface as much,” Hesson said.
LOT OF SPIN OPTIONS
Answering a question, Hesson backed his bowling unit while reckoning that the Dubai track would not assist spinners as the Sharjah pitch did.
The coach continued, “The beauty of our side is we’ve got five spinners. Mohammad Nawaz, who’s the best spin bowler in the world at the moment — he’s been ranked that way over the last six months since he came back into the side. And obviously, we’ve had Abrar [Ahmed] and Sufiyan [Muqeem] doing as well as he has. Saim Ayub now is among the world’s top 10 all-rounders, and Salman Ali Agha hardly bowls — he’s obviously the Test spinner. So, we’ve got a lot of spin options.
“[And] if we don’t, we’ve got five seamers as well who allow us to either go for raw speed, change of pace, or reverse swing, depending on what we think the surface will provide,” Hesson added.
Replying to a question regarding Pakistan batters’ frailty particularly against quality spin, the coach defended his developing team.
“We’ve played against [Afghanistan leg-spinner] Rashid Khan, we’ve played against probably the best wrist-spin attack in the world on a surface that spun square, and we managed to score 70 more than our opposition [in the recently-held tri-series final]. So, I’m not quite sure where that’s come from,” he said.
“We are a very much developing batting line-up, and there’s a number of players who, on their day, can win you the game, but they don’t have as many good days as you’d like at the moment. I think that’s very fair.
“We’re more interested in the sum of the parts as a batting group. In every [tri-series] game in Sharjah — bar one — we were probably 20 above par. So, even though there were a number of players who didn’t do well on particular occasions, I’m more interested in what we end up with and how we get there.”
Commenting on power-hitting, something several Pakistan batters had been lacking in recent times, the coach said that he focused on the way modern game was being played.
“I think being honest about your assessment of players is pretty important. And I think also, coming from a place where you have no agenda is very important,” Hesson said.“If you’re able to come in as someone who can look at things objectively, I think that’s important. I certainly haven’t talked about anyone’s frailties. What I’ve alluded to is obviously the way the modern game is played — the strike rate required and the power-hitting in the powerplay is quite different from what it probably needed in the past, especially in good conditions.”
Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2025
